individual progress report

In week 3, Leonard, Chris and I agreed to form a group together and worked towards a research question for the major assignment at the end of the course. All of us had our own questions in mind, but there was a common thing that we were interested in: making profit.

We discussed and put up potential research questions on the drawing board. Eventually, we settled on delving in the area of Events Management. The traditional event involved a hired professional company holding and organizing a high profile activity that would gather a large amount of people. The objective of most events was to not only ensure quality entertainment, but as well as to garner huge revenue that would benefit the events company in the long run.

With the media industry ever developing and new media constantly changing, we questioned on how this could affect events management. We considered numerous possibilities and in the end, we came up with our main research question: How to generate profit from non-traditional events management using online media.

Our main aim was not only to merge new media with events management, but as well to gain a deeper understanding and develop a network sector in the events market.

In particular, Chris had prior experience and contacts within the events management field back in Singapore. Thus, that was half our strategy worked out. We also had planned to create surveys, conduct interviews with the necessary personnel and look into the past and future trends of events management.

Everything was going on schedule, but our original group of 3 doubled to 6 people within the short span of 1 tutorial. Hoon, Elyn and Daniel joined our group. With twice the amount of manpower, the workload could be equally divided. But it meant the inevitable pressure of obtaining a high grade for the assignment.

I don’t have an exact role in the group, neither do the rest of my group. Instead, each of us agreed to take up a portion of the work and adhere to the timeline planned out in the project brief. We would have weekly meetings to update each other on the progress being made. With no appointed leader, we came to a consensus to speak to any member who wasn’t contributing a fair share to the assignment. If matters could not be settled within the group, we would approach our tutor or a third party for their insight.

The progress I have made so far, to be honest, has been slow. I had to juggle with this assignment as well as the other projects in my other courses as well. As of this week, I have managed to do three surveys ahead of schedule. My group members have given me feedback on how to improve it. Once vetted, I will be creating these surveys electronically and my group members will help to send them to our network. When the surveys have been completed, they will be sent back to me for compilation. I will then be tabulating the results and finalizing the data. Besides this, I plan to help out in other areas that the group needs assistance in.

There were problems that I had encountered along the way:

1) Coming up with the questions
2) How would I properly phrase the questions
3) How would the questions eventually be relevant to our research
4) Looking for a survey tabulating software

The first three proved to be a little stumbling block, but I resolved them by searching for survey examples on the Internet and borrowing some of the questions. I have yet to solve the fourth problem though. A fellow peer told me of statistic tabulating software called SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) that could be downloaded online. However, I’m not keen as I have worked with this software in the past and found it difficult and confusing to use. Thus, I am looking at other online alternatives. To date, I have found such on sites like Zoomerang and Survey Monkey. But I will look to compare the two and see which is better in helping the research.

Although this project does not connect with the projects in my courses, it does however broaden my knowledge in the events management sector. Personally, I have limited experience and contacts in this area. I do believe that this project will help put me in good stead and provide an option in my future career.

I think the key issues that are important for me at this time would be time management and the quality of research material found.

As the final weeks of semester closes in, so do the rest of the assignments. Most of them carry heavy percentage of the final grade and thus would consume more time. This assignment is no exception. Hence, time management would be crucial in the coming weeks. I would have to really know how to prioritize my workload and ensure that there would be no lack of effort put in. A timeline would definitely prove most useful in helping me cope with this.

A major part of this assignment would require a high standard of research; hence I would need to carefully judge the substance of every material found. I would also have to pay close attention on the credibility of the sources. Perharps the most important aspect in this issue is to know what material to search for in order to save valuable time. The question is how, but I am sure that I would be able to resolve it together with the help of my group members.

To conclude this report, the project seems very extensive and worrisome at this stage. Yet I am confident that I will be able to contribute my faire share of the work, if not more. Hopefully in the weeks ahead, I can resolve the present issues that I am facing right now as well as future ones. Finally, I hope that I will have gained much from this project by the end of the final presentation.